Hedgers, Fillers etc

Lakoff (1975)

Published the book Language and Woman's Place, and in a related article, Woman's Language, she listed a set of basic assumptions about what marks out the language of women:

Hedge: using phrases like “sort of”, “kind of”, “it seems like”,and so on.

Use (super)polite forms: “Would you mind...”,“I'd appreciate it if...”, “...if you don't mind”. 

Use tag questions: “You're going to dinner, aren't you?” 

Speak in italics: intonational emphasis equal to underlining words - so, very, quite. 

Use empty adjectives: divine, lovely, adorable, and so on 

Use hypercorrect grammar and pronunciation: English prestige grammar and clear enunciation.

Use direct quotation: men paraphrase more often.

Have a special lexicon: women use more words for things like colours, men for sports. 

Use question intonation in declarative statements: women make declarative statements into questions by raising the pitch of their voice at the end of a statement, expressing uncertainty. For example, “What school do you attend? Eton College?”

Use “wh-” imperatives: (such as, “Why don't you open the door?”)

Speak less frequently

Overuse qualifiers: (for example, “I Think that...”)

Apologise more: (for instance, “I'm sorry, but I think that...”)

Use modal constructions: (such as can, would, should, ought - “Should we turn up the heat?”)

Avoid coarse language or expletives

Use indirect commands and requests: (for example, “My, isn't it cold in here?” - really a request to turn the heat on or close a window)

Use more intensifiers: especially so and very (for instance, “I am so glad you came!”)

Lack a sense of humour: women do not tell jokes well and often don't understand the punch line of jokes.

So overall, women take longer to get to the point than men, and prefer to offer rather than tell, and generally be more polite than men.